Virgin fast-tracks new vegan options

Saturday, 5th January 2019

A Catholic animal welfare group has urged train operators to follow Virgin Trains in offering a vegan menu to passengers.

The national rail operator now offers a full vegan menu on all its routes after pressure from its customers, with vegan-friendly options in standard class including a breakfast pot with mushrooms, hash browns, spinach and baked beans, with a vegan chilli in the evening.

First class menus feature a potato hash breakfast, Mediterranean pasta salad and spicy Bombay potato, and all trains stock soya as an alternative to cow’s milk.

Catholic Concern for Animals (CCA) welcomed the news, pointing out that this year has been tipped to be ‘the year of the vegan’, and urged other train firms to take similar action.

“CCA are very pleased to hear that travellers on Virgin trains will now have a vegan option and I hope that other train operators follow Virgin’s lead,” Chris Fegan, CCA chief executive, told The Catholic Universe.

“CCA strongly supports a cruelty-free lifestyle and a vegan diet is an important ingredient in such.”

The news also comes as Greggs announced that it is launching a ‘vegan friendly’ version of an old customer favourite – the sausage roll.

The bakery chain, which sells 1.5 million traditional sausage rolls per week, said the UK’s 3.5 million vegans will be able to enjoy a ‘next generation’ version of its best-selling item.

The vegan version has some ‘classic features’ of the traditional sausage roll, according to Greggs, including 96 layers of puff pastry – but instead of meat the filling is made with Quorn.

Greggs said the launch follows ‘strong consumer demand’, including a petition by Peta last year signed by more than 20,000 people.

Picture: Undated Virgin Trains handout photo of vegan food options available to its standard class passengers, as it says it has become the first UK train operator to offer a full vegan menu on all its routes. (Virgin Trains).